Billy MacLellan (Temal Danker in “Wish I’d Spaced You When I Had The Chance“) is The Reverend in John Leonetti’s horror film THE SILENCE, based on the 2015 novel by Tim Lebbon about a plague of mutant bats. (After being attacked by a parasitic organism, the bats morph into a new lethal species called Vesps, which rapidly increase in number and attack the human population.) The story follows Ally (Kiernan Shipka), a deaf teenager, whose heightened senses enable her to know when the Vesps are nearby. She and her family retreat to the woods where they must live in total silence, because even the slightest noise attracts the creatures. Filmed in Toronto, THE SILENCE will premiere in Germany on 6 September.

MacLellan will also be Arielle’s father John in ICE BLUE, a film about the unexpected return of Arielle’s mother, Maria (played by Michelle Morgan). Maria had vanished some ten years previously, and her return causes Arielle (Sophia Lauchlin Hirt) to question everything that her father has ever told her about their family. Director Sandi Somers told Jessica Melnychuk of Local Drop Magazine: “One of the last times I saw my mother before she died, she asked me if I’d heard this message. She didn’t tell me what it was – she said ‘I’ll tell you about it the next time I see you’. And I still don’t know what it was. What was it she wanted to spend focused time with me to tell me about? It triggered the inspiration for some of the film’s themes.”ICE BLUE had its premiere last September at the Calgary International Film Festival. Continue reading →

THE EXPANSE – Season 2 Episode 5 – SPOILERS

DRUMMER: One hundred and fifty live thermonuclear missiles under your control. I believe that makes you the most powerful man in the system right now.” JOHNSON: “Really? Then go get me a cup of coffee.” (Drummer’s reaction is pictured.)

Joe Miller (Thomas Jane), sitting on a catwalk on the surface of Eros, says two very interesting things. First he says: “If Eros stopped rotating that quick, I’d be dead as a bug on a windshield.” Then later: “If Eros isn’t spinning anymore, then how can I still have gravity?” Eros is roughly cylindrical, so Miller must be on a circular catwalk on the end of the cylinder where the docking ports are located. Otherwise, he would not feel the effects of pseudo-gravity on the outside of Eros, even if it was spinning.

Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) on the roof of her home, contemplating the end of the world

Here’s a theory. It is possible that the protomolecule absorbed and redirected the spin of Eros. If the energy of rotation along with the orbital momentum were somehow channeled into a propulsive force, some of which could be stored for future acceleration, that process might generate the waste heat described by Naomi and would likely be sufficient to account for the asteroid’s acceleration. It would work kind of the way Star Trek‘s inertial dampers work, only on a much larger scale. It would also explain why Miller doesn’t feel any acceleration when Eros speeds up. He is inside a giant inertial damping field.

Having dodged The Nauvoo, protomolecular Eros puts itself on a collision course with Earth. We get a hint of Earth’s total population when estimates of casualties from the projected impact are 7 to 10 billion immediately, and another 10 billion from lingering environmental effects. That means there are more than 20 billion people on Earth and to sustain that level of population one might speculate that they must be using some Soylent-Green-like approach to the food supply.

Earth fires half of its planetary defense missiles at Eros. We learn from how quickly they get out of the Earth’s gravity well that those missiles must be equipped with fusion drives. Eros decides not to reflect radar anymore, and the missiles become useless, unable to track the target.

Eros impacts Venus. Interestingly, Eros took on a slow, end-over-end rotation as it approached.

As a last resort, Miller does the sensible thing. He carts his pet nuke (long story not worth telling) inside Eros and finds what’s left of Julie Mao. He has reasoned out that Julie’s intelligence, being the first absorbed, is serving as the control center for the protomolecule. He locates proto-Julie and finds out that she is steering the asteroid to Earth because she is homesick. When Miller tries to get her to stop, she says: “We can’t stop the work.” Miller quickly adapts, saying: “Ok, we can’t stop the work. But we don’t have to go to Earth, right? Why don’t we go to Venus?”

Later, Drummer does bring Fred a cup of coffee.

Proto-Julie makes a course correction. Earth is saved. Venus, which has apparently been completely ignored by humans in their colonization of the solar system, is selected as the place for the protomolecule to do its “work” (whatever that might be). Miller and Julie kiss, and Eros crash-lands.

NOTES

Jean Yoon (Captain Theresa Yao in episodes 1.3 and 1.4) received an ACTRA Toronto award for outstanding performance by a female for her role as Umma in the CBC comedy KIM’S CONVENIENCE. Accepting the award, Yoon said, “I’m really proud to be working on a show about immigrants in a time of nationalist intolerance.”Cara Gee (Drummer) tweeted that “For all my new pals from The Expanse, @jean_yoon (Captain Yao) once played my mom on stage in The Rez Sisters. And I love her.” (“The Rez Sisters” is a 1986 play by Tomson Highway.)

Shawn Doyle (Sadavir Errinwright) is Police Chief Peter Welland in the TV drama BELLEVUE In the first episode, (which aired 20 February), a transgender teen, who is also the best hockey player in town, goes missing. Co-showrunner Jane Maggs, speaking to Stephanie Beaumont of Sea and Be Scene described the series as: “a complex human drama dressed up as a thrilling mystery. It’s about loss, pain, rage, mistakes and outsiders. And at its core it’s about love – desperate love and the way that love can take us over, can drive us to our most extreme selves and can blind us.” BELLEVUE airs Mondays at 9pm on CBC.

Sadavir Errinwright having a drink in his office at the UN.

Doyle is also Owen in AWAY FROM EVERYWHERE, which co-stars Joanne Kelly and Jason Priestley, and is about a love triangle involving a struggling writer, his brother, and his brother’s wife. The film will be in theatres in St. John’s, NL (Scotiabank Theatre) on 1 March, Ottawa on 3 March, and Toronto on 4 March. A trailer is available on Vimeo.

– also Alex Paxton-Beesley, Shawn Doyle, Katie Boland

Tamy Gillis and Amy GoodMurphy on the set of THIRTY-SEVENTEEN in Coquitlam, B.C.

Tammy Gillis will be Claire in THIRTY-SEVENTEEN, a film about a software mogul named Adam Vine, who has everything in life with the exception of pleasant memories from high school. He reluctantly attends his 20th class reunion and has such an amazing time that he offers his all of his former classmates one year’s salary to do one more month of the 12th grade with him. Written and directed by Michael Coleman (Happy the miner in ONCE UPON A TIME), THIRTY-SEVENTEEN will be released in Canada on 1 December.

Gillis will also be Jen in episodes four and five of THE ARRANGEMENT, a series about Megan Morrison (Christine Evangelista), a young actress who auditions for the female lead in a summer blockbuster opposite Kyle West, one of the world’s top action movie stars. Kyle’s mentor Terrence and his wife Deann run a self-help organization called the Institute of The Higher Mind. After Megan’s audition leads to a first date (and more) with Kyle, she is presented with a contract that would change her life forever. Some have suggested that the plot bears some similarity to the story of Tom Cruise, his ties to Scientology, and his relationship with Katie Holmes, but the network has issued a statement that the project was not inspired by anyone in particular. The ten episode series will premiere on E! in March 2017. A trailer is available on YouTube.

Katie Boland and Megan Park in New York City during the filming of the webseries WE’RE ADULTS NOW, which they co-created, wrote and star in.

Katie Boland and Rosanna Arquette will star in NEVER SAW IT COMING, a thriller directed by Gail Harvey and based on the Linwood Barclay novel of the same name. The book’s central character, Keisha Ceylon, is a fraudulent psychic who watches the news for stories of missing family members. She gives it a few days, then moves in, tells these families she’s had a vision, that she may have some clue to where these missing people are. And by the way, she charges for this service, and likes to see the money up front. Keisha finally has a “vision” close enough to the truth to make one of her clients feel threatened. Filming will begin in winter 2017.

Alex Paxton-Beesley as Kira Fletcher in episode 5.15 of HAVEN (The episode is not yet available on Netflix)

Alex Paxton-Beesley will co-star with Ryan Robbins in PURE, a six episode miniseries that tells the story of a newly-elected Mennonite pastor who sets out to rid his community of drug traffickers by betraying a fellow Mennonite to the police. But instead of solving the problem, Noah’s actions trigger an ultimatum from a Mennonite mob leader. In order to protect his family he must become involved in the mob’s activities. He decides to cooperate in order to secretly gather enough evidence to dismantle the organization. Filming has already begun on location in Nova Scotia and Alberta, and PURE will be part of CBC’s 2016/17 season.

Shawn Doyle is Owen in the film AWAY FROM EVERYWHERE, based on the 2009 novel by Chad Pelley, which also stars Joanne Kelly and Jason Priestley. A struggling writer (Doyle) just out of rehab reunites with his estranged brother (Priestley) and becomes romantically involved with his brother’s wife (Kelly). The film had its world preniere at the Atlantic Film Fest in Halifax. It will next be screened22 September at 2pm at Cinefest Sudbury.

Doyle will also be Police Chief Peter Welland and Anna Paquin will be Detective Annie Ryder in the eight episode CBC mystery series BELLVUE. In the pilot, a transgender teen goes missing, and Annie finds evidence that suggests foul play, but finds herself in a difficult position as she must cast suspicion on people she has known all her life. BELLEVUE began filming in Montreal in September and will premiere in winter 2017.